A lot of good/valid points here simon33.
I agree, I don’t see the need for the IJ objective for Japan either. However, it is not that bad and it is a fairly easy objective for the US to take out. I am not sure if it is worth it for the USA to mess with this as it is easy for Japan to take back. But honestly, I think the med islands objectives are worse. If Taranto is not done, then Italy has a good chance to take all three islands for a gain of +5 for Axis. If Allied controlled it is +6 for the British with a difference of up to 11 IPC. It is BIG trouble for the Allies if Axis gain +5 here. It can’t be ignored, but the problem is you loose sooooooooo much tempo in your play if you are going to protect your transports and re-take those islands with USA/British. I am not sure how to deal with it.
As for Italy, in my playoff game against Wittmann he got a +38 bid for allies and spent it “all†towards Italy. Here is Italys income: 3,18,10,3,5,7 …… single digits……7,8,13(round 16). You never see number like this in BM. I believe this is a good thing about BM. Here is the tread: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=41972.315 for that game. I am sure helping Italy to become a more playable power is one of the main things the developers wanted to achieve. I think it is very difficult to move units around in the starting set-up and I think it is fair not to mess with that. I did not understand your point with the unescorted TT in sz 91 though.
As for the guerilla fighters I think it is good improvement of the game. It makes it much harder for Japan and it seems like you agree that Axis are still overpowered in BM? If you disallow the guerilla fighters it is not even close to compensate with no IJ objective. Axis will be even more overpowered. I think China is more playable in BM than in OOB.
Then I agree with you about the lend lease and Soviet/Japan relationship. In OOB you can say it is a no-brainer to DOW on Japan with Soviet. In BM I feel it is almost the opposite. It is less need for Soviet help because of the Guerilla fighters though. But I would substitute the lend lease objectives (Persia and Amur) with an objective for holding Novosibirsk, like it is if you play Europe only. I would also keep the original Archangel objective of +5 and I would keep the original DOW rules for Soviet and Japan. The +3 for no allied units is good too. I guess this is the original +5 split up in two (+3 and +2 for Archangel). I also liked the Soviet money for Iraq and Africa. I guess I am the only one.